EMC Debuts DMX, Part Deux: Page 3 of 4

The new DMX systems and features from EMC include:

• Symmetrix DMX3000: The new three-bay system provides between 192 and 576 drives for a maximum of up to 84 Tbytes of raw capacity. While that's still less than HDS's Lightning 9900V (which theoretically supports up to 146 Tbytes), analysts believe very few customers are packing that much storage in a single system anyway. The starting price for the DMX3000 is $1.7 million.
• Lower-priced DMX800: EMC says it will cut the cost of the 800 by 30 percent, with a starting price of $284,000 (compared with $406,000 previously). The 800 provides between 580 Gbytes and 17 Tbytes of storage.
• iSCSI support: EMC will offer native iSCSI connectivity for its DMX line for customers who have been "put off by the high cost of Fibre Channel," said Donatelli. "Now, with iSCSI, they can consolidate more of their storage at a lower cost alongside their Fibre Channel SAN." He added that EMC is delivering "more than a protocol," noting that the iSCSI has been certified and tested as part of the company's interoperability matrix.
• SRDF/A: EMC claims the asynchronous version of its disk-replication software will reduce bandwidth consumption by 30 percent, because it mirrors delta sets of data every 30 seconds instead of constantly updating ordered writes (as the traditional synchronous version of SRDF does). SRDF/A now allows EMC to compete head-to-head with HDS and IBM, which each offer asynchronous disk mirroring for their high-end arrays.
• Nondisruptive Operating System: A new version of the Symmetrix operating system, Enginuity 5670, allows users to perform software upgrades and add hardware without any disruption in service. "This is a market requirement for the enormous SANs that people are putting in with thousands of servers," says Chuck Hollis, VP of platforms marketing at EMC. "There is no such thing as "scheduled downtime.' "
• EMC Snap: The company says this copy software uses only 30 percent additional disk space for copies, whereas EMC's TimeFinder copy software requires 100 percent of the original storage.
• SRDF over Gigabit Ethernet: Allows DMX customers to send SRDF directly over IP without having to use channel extension devices, such as those from CNT (Nasdaq: CMNT).

But why did EMC introduce iSCSI first for the high-end Symmetrix line, rather than its midrange Clariion family? Most analysts have expressed bafflement that the Symmetrix would be the first in line for iSCSI (see Is EMC Overshooting on iSCSI?).

Tucci said EMC will provide native iSCSI connectivity across its entire line -- including the Clariion -- at some future date. The reason it came out for the Symmetrix first, he said, was because an engineer in the DMX group came up with the concept and ran with it. "We're going to do it everywhere... It was just good timing [on the DMX]," he said.

The iSCSI option, available with the new Multiprotocol Director card, was internally developed by EMC, according to Hollis. "We consider it important intellectual property," he says. The card includes a PowerPC processor on each port; EMC says one iSCSI port can support between 7 and 12 servers.

Hollis adds that EMC has no plans to support Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) or Internet Fibre Channel Protocol (iFCP) in its storage systems. "FCIP and iFCP are SAN-bridging protocols; they really don't belong in the array," he says.